According to a news release, "The units are designed to help school-based leadership teams develop a shared body of knowledge about the procedures, processes, and structures involved in effective learning for educators, and to develop the skills needed to facilitate job-embedded, school-based professional learning."

The four units are:

Managing Change, which addresses why and how people change their ways. This course is intended to help school leaders help faculty and staff improve teaching practices;

Facilitating Learning Teams, which focuses on team development and roles in order to accomplish set goals regarding the Common Core;

Learning Designs, which teaches school leaders to present to faculty and staff a variety of learning designs to enhance teaching and learning methods; and

Standards for Professional Learning, which zeroes in on the reasoning behind the Common Core standards.

Each unit comes with background readings, protocols, suggested strategies to reach school improvement plans, and other resources for administrators to help teachers in the implementation of the standards.

"The units will help guide me and my leadership team as we develop a plan of action to implement professional learning within our school," said Bryant Gillis, principal at Tichenor Middle School of Erlanger, KY. "We will begin by using the unit survey to self-assess our needs concerning professional learning."

Tim Sohn is a 10-year veteran of the news business, having served in capacities from reporter to editor-in-chief of a variety of publications including Web sites, daily and weekly newspapers, consumer and trade magazines, and wire services. He can be reached at timothyjsohn@gmail.com and followed on Twitter @editortim.

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